A cold south wind! No frost on the north slope, hummingbirds sharing

Update: Well it sometimes happens that Town Mouse and I post one right after the other without noticing.

We are both a bit down about the dry weather - but whereas my post is really fairly content free, Ms Town Mouses' has something worth reading — Check out my cute hummingbird pics then hop on over to Ms Town Mouse's post…

It's so cold even the pugnacious hummingbirds are taking turns, clustering around the feeder

Your turn

OK, my turn now

The south garden birdbath frozen solid.

But the north facing garden stayed soft and damp.

 I'm beginning to see a garden layout taking shape here.

It is the exposed southerly parts of the property where we have gotten frost. Cold winds off the frigid Monterey Bay to our south. Good news for my new plantings in this area anyway, all of which are looking fine, especially after one good night of rain a few days ago.

But of rain we have had far too little this year. Echoing Oliver Twist we ask Mother Nature: "Please, ma'am, can we have more?" But Mother Nature says —

NO!

And really, with daytime temperatures rising to the low sixties Fahrenheit, how can we complain, seeing what other regions of the U.S. are going through weather wise right now:

Icy storm system wreaks havoc as it rumbles towards eastern seaboard

Virginia official warns of 'historic ice event' as freezing weather heads for densely populated north-east US

(US edition of the London Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/ice-storm-us)